Switching Fates
by kitsuneLovers94
Summary: The elders had a plan. No one would know... hopefully. Narutox? pairings undecided.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Hello everyone! Its been a long time since I started writing again. I wanted to test try this story thats been bugging me for the past few days so I hope you all find this more interesting then my first story.

Summery: The elders and the Sandaime had a plan. No one would find out. Hopefully.

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><p><strong>CHAPTER ONE: Rebuilding and Decisions<strong>

10th October, Night of the Kyuubi attack.

Sarutobi Hiruzen sat in the Hokage's office resting from the battle with the Kyuubi just several hours past. A frown marred his old and wizened face as he stared at the newest problem that had to be dealt with. In front of him on his desk was a large basket and in it were two sleeping babies with one only a year older then the other.

The older of the two younglings was a boy with snowy white hair that was spiky in all directions. The younger one was a girl with a small tuft of golden blond hair being that she was only born earlier today and three cute whisker like markings on each cheek. These two were Namikaze Naruto and Namikaze Rina children of the late Yondaime of Konoha and the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero.

'_How did it come to this?'_

The sound of the door opening interrupted the Sandaime's thoughts as three people entered the room. Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu and Jiraiya the Gama Sennin stood facing him, their faces were grim from increasing tension in the room. All three of them simultaneously turned their gaze on to the babies on the desk. Jiraiya frowned when he noticed Naruto's white hair.

"Sensei, what happened to Naruto's hair?" Questioned Jiraiya as he came closer to inspect the two infants.

"It was that way when I found the two of them." Jiraiya frowned at that and started to search if there was anything wrong with both his god-children. For a moment everyone was quiet, before the Sennin started to chuckle.

"Minato you crazy genius." Sarutobi turned to question his student.

"What did you find out?" Jiraiya lifted both the childrens shirts so that the elders would have a better look. First he gestured to Rina's seal.

"The seal holding the Kyuubi is intact. Its designed to slowly leak a small amount into Rina's chakra coils so that in the future she will be able to adapt and use its chakra but that's not the interesting part." Jiraiya then jestured to Naruto's chest, specifically where the hearts is. There a smaller seal then the kyuubi's but of the same design was placed.

"Naruto here holds a small portion of kyuubi's chakra which is not much but I'm guessing about half a tails worth. The thing is the key to releasing and fixing Rina's seal is in Naruto's."

"What does this mean?" Questioned Koharu.

"It means that if the Kyuubi ever escapes then Naruto is the fail safe that will seal the Kyuubi back into his sister." The elders grew quiet to digest this information.

"Hiruzen, I hope you know what to make of this grim situation Konoha has landed herself in." Said Homura as he looked back at his old teammate.

"It's obvious what I have to do isn't it Homura? For now I'll reinstate myself as Hokage once again. We've lost about a 100 good men and women and many more civilians. We'll need to bring back most of our shinobi back to the village and enact the old war regime in the academy to bolster more troops. We can't let other villages start thinking we're weak."

"We know that Hiruzen but that's not what we wanted to hear. What are we going to do with the children." All eyes turned to Koharu as she said this, then to the babies, then back to their leader. A large sigh escaped Sarutobi as he stared back at them.

"Truthfully I don't know, but what I do know is that Minato-kun wanted his daughter to be seen as a hero by the village. I'm going to publicly announce Rina's burden to the villagers."

"Sensei, I know you must be tired but have you gone insane? The villagers will start to call for blood once they here of the truth and what of Naruto? Are you going to reveal his heritage? There is a reason both Minato and Kushina never revealed Naruto's birth." Said Jiraiya.

"I must agree with him Hiruzen. With the villagers in so much grief from their losses they wont accept the girl as nothing more than the fox in human form." Said Homura while getting a nod of confirmation from Koharu.

"Then what do you suggest I should do? The villagers will want an explanation for what happened tonight. They would all need atleast some closure as to what happened to the fox."

"Might I suggest something Sarutobi?"

Everyone turned to the new arrival in the room. A frown marred both Sarutobi's and Jiraiya's face.

"Danzo."

The old war hawk and rival to the Sandaime stood infront of the door with not a hint of an expression on his scarred face.

"Danzo-dono, what pray tell are you going to suggest." Said Koharu. Danzo turned to glace at the babies before locking his gaze onto Sarutobi's.

"Tell the villagers that Naruto is the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and Rina as the Namikaze heir." At this everyone looked at him with a hint of a surprise on their face. Sarutobi and Jiraiya quickly narrowed their eyes at him.

"Do continue old friend, I would like to know how this plan of yours would work." Questioned Sarutobi. Danzo turned to face Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya, have you told Sarutobi of _them_?" Jiraiya turned to glare at him in both surprise and suspicion.

"How did you know? This information is extremely hard to come by. It took me quite a while find out about them." Sarutobi had enough of all the secrecy, he locked eyes with his student. The unspoken message already clear. _What are you talking about?_

"There is an underground organization called the Akatsuki hidden deep in the underworld. Nothing much is clear on them and their a bitch to get information on but there are rumors saying they are looking for information on the bijuu and the jinchuuriki's." At this there was no hiding the surprise on their faces, a nod from Danzo only confirmed the Sennin's words.

"It's all quite simple. Rina is vulnerable in that she is both a jinchuuriki and a Namikaze, many will try to kill her and with this Akatsuki up and about her safety and secrecy is of most importance. Revealing that Naruto is the Jinchuuriki will keep Rina safe from the Akatsuki. At the same time stating that the Yondaime successfully had an heir that survived the night will bolster morale and lift the spirit of the civilians. All of Konoha will want to protect the Namikaze Heir." With each word the plan started to become more likeable and more appealing to all of them.

"But still what will happen to Naruto? Are we all just gonna leave him to fend for himself? Why don't I take him with me?" Asked Jiraiya. At the mention of the boy's well fair everyone turned to Sarutobi. The Sandaime closed his eyes in thought before opening them.

"While that would be good for Naruto it will make Rina vulnerable. We will need them both to be here in Konoha to execute Danzo's plan to the fullest. Also it would hinder you greatly if you had to take care of a child and manage your spy network at the same time." Sarutobi turned to the elders to regard them.

"Have the grand council ready, we will discuss the rebuilding of Konoha there. Remember this all of you, no one is to know of what was spoken inside this room. I'm labeling this as an SS-rank secret that is to be taken to the grave." Jiraiya made move to protest.

"But Sensei! You can't be-"

"Jiraiya I'm dead serious. I know this isn't right but what choice do we have. If keeping Konoha safe and the Kyuubi from our enemies hands means I have to sacrifice one child to the darkness and hate of the world then so be it. I am sorry but the decision has been made."

In later years the old Sandaime will come to regret his decision.

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><p><strong>So what do you guys think? Good? Bad? Review and tell me your thoughts. :D<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Hello again guys. I have to confess that chapter 1 wasn't really well made since I actually did it on a whim and only under 3 hours so sorry for the poor quality. I'll try making a few changes here and there when I have the time but you guys don't really need to read it back again since its mostly gonna be the same. I read a couple of reviews saying how bad the sandaime is but please dont hate him. I like the guy so I didn't mean to make him look bad. With pairings, like the summary says its not official because I find that they're all still a little too young to have couples. There's only going to be cute fluffiness, awkward moments and the occasional flirt but nothing official. This means I can experiment with different types of pairings in the future. If you guys want I might just make the pairing you all want but the characters wont start dating until after the time skip to shipuuden. I wont do incest, yuri and yaoi. I find incest okay but I cant right it and its the same thing with yuri. I'm a guy so I don't need to explain yaoi. I hope you guys like this new chapter, I made it longer then the first so enjoy! (hope you like her :D)

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><p><strong>CHAPTER TWO: Childhood F<strong>**riends**

The plan came out almost perfectly; almost. The villagers' reaction to the news of the new Kyuubi jinchuuriki was predictable and practically text book written. People wouldn't stand for anything but the boy's death until the Sandaime revealed the birth of Namikaze Rina. Silence was instant in the town square where the public hearing was held, everyone too captivated by the sight of the Sandaime holding the blond baby out in the open.

The Sandaime explained to the people that if the Kyuubi was not sealed into Naruto then the Yondaime's daughter would not have survived the night. At the mention of the boy's sacrifice the silence was broken as the crowd started to converse among themselves, unsure on how to react to this new information. Unfortunately there were still people too ignorant to accept the boy as a savior but only the fox itself so to counter the problem the Sandaime made an S-rank law to not tell any children or outsiders from knowing the truth and if broken will be punishable by death.

Soon news spread all over Konoha that the daughter of the Yondaime had survived the night and that the Kyuubi has been sealed into a living vessel. Danzo's plan had worked for the most part in that it caused the number of people supporting Naruto's death had significantly decreased from the near 95 percent to a manageable 60 percent. Anyone foolish enough in an attempt to assassinate the boy was dealt with quickly.

The first few years in the lives of the Namikaze children were practical at most. Namikaze Rina had been showered with glory and affection from the villagers, having been dubbed Konoha's Kiroi Hime (Yellow Princess) since the mention of her birth. The girl lived in her parents old home with caretakers and ANBU around for protection. A life filled with love and happiness.

Naruto on the other hand, having been stripped of his surname to erase any connection to his sister was sent to live in an orphanage. The orphanage matriarch was thankfully an old friend of the Sandaime, a retired veteran field medic-nin so he was treated fairly among the orphans. Most of the villagers ignore him when they see him, having want nothing to do with the Kyuubi boy. There was the often cold glares and rotten curses behind his back but nothing physical so far. There were a few villagers that were kind enough to treat him fairly but these were few and far in between.

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><p>Eight years after the Kyuubi attack.<p>

Uchiha Sasuke was a happy child, he had a beautifull mother, a strong father and mostly above all he had his beloved Itachi-nii. There was only one problem, "Sasu-chan! Imca-chan is here!" a sigh escaped our young raven as he reluctantly had to take care of Imca again.

Who is Imca you ask? (pronounced as Im-u-ca) Uchiha Imca is Uchiha Sasuke's cousin, granddaughter of Uchiha Teyaki and Uchiha Uruchi (These guys are real, only Imca is an OC). "Coming mother!" Down the stairs a young eight year old little girl with short raven hair that had two long bangs framing her face and dark eyes in a yellow dress holding a brown teddy bear in her arms stood next to his mother. (link on profile, just think an 8 year old version of her)

Now there was nothing wrong with Imca at all its just that she's a little "Sasu-chan!"… clingy. Little Sasuke grimaced and tried to free his hand from the little girl clinging to his right arm. "Get off me you-" Whatever retort that was about to come out of his mouth quickly died at the look his mother was giving him.

"Now Sasu-chan be nice to Imca-chan. A boy must never be rude to a girl or make her cry." The boy sighed in defeat at this, "Yes mother." A tug on his hands brought his attention to his cousin, "Sasu-chan, let's go to the park. I want you to meet my new friend, I'm sure you'll like him." At this Sasuke and Mikoto raised an eye brow at her. It wasn't common knowledge but ever since the little girl got bullied by a couple of boys in the park she was a bit scared to go near any boys other than her cousins Sasuke and Itachi.

Mikoto smiled at the little girl, "Well then you both better get going, don't want to keep your friend waiting any longer right Imca-chan? Sasu-chan go and play with your cousin."

"But moooom" "NOW Sasuke."….. "Yes mother." With that the two eight year olds were off to meet Imca's new friend.

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><p>Naruto wasn't the most happiest of kids…. Ok he really isn't the most happiest of kids but who can blame the nine year old. He had to deal with all the grownups glaring and ignoring him, living alone in a dusty old apartment, getting homework from Iruka-sensei and now was going to get punished for pranking said teacher today. Looking up he tried to not let loose a snicker at the sight of Iruka glaring at him with egg yolk all over his front and face.<p>

"NARUTO PAY ATTENTION, this isn't funny you little brat! You're going to clean up this mess and head to detention for today and tomorrow!" At the mention of detention the spiky white haired boy looked up in distress at his teacher. "Detention! But I can't do detention today Iruka-sensei! I've got something to do later and it's really important. Can't I just clean up the mess and have detention tomorrow?"

Iruka frowned at the boy, usually he never complained that much about getting detention. "And what's so important that you have to skip detention huh Naruto?" At this the boy froze and a small hint of a blush formed on his face as he started to mumble under his breath. Iruke looked at him in surprise, it was quite rare for Naruto to get this flustered. "What did you say Naruto? Speak up or else I can't hear you." Naruto's blush deepend a bit further and the boy said what was being mumbled out a little too quickly.

"_IhaveafriendI'msupposetomeetandsh__-_"

A punch to the head from said teacher quickly shut the boy up, "Slow down you idiot!" Naruto rubbed his sore head and glared at his teacher before sighing loudly, "I have a friend I need to meet today. We met at the park a couple of days ago and we had a lot of fun playing together, she said to meet her at the park again the day after tomorrow which is today. Please Iruka-sensei I really can't do detention today, she's my first friend so I really want to make a good impression."

Iruka looked down at Naruto and sighed at the hopeful look on his students face, not only that but the man was quite happy for the boy to finally make a friend. "All right you can go, but only after you clean this mess up, expect to have extra homework and detention tomorrow." Naruto grinned at Iruka before giving a big whoop while jumping into the air, "Alright Iruka-sensei you the man! Just give me a few minutes and this place will be all as good as new." Iruka smilled at him before heading off to the toilet to get cleaned up. He stopped at the door before snickering to himself, "Good luck with your date Naruto." Iruka left the room leaving a furiously blushing boy behind him, "IT'S NOT A DATE!"

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><p>Sasuke grumbled in annoyance at being dragged to the park by his cousin. They were already in the park but Imca was dragging him all the way at the edge of the area through some bushes and trees, "Are you sure you know where you're going? We're quite far away from the main square of the park." Imca looked back at him and smilled, "Don't worry Sasu-chan, we're almost there." True to her words not a couple of minutes later found them in a small clearing with a small lake near the edge. In the middle of the place was a collapsed old log and on it was a white haired boy with deep blue eyes.<p>

Imca smilled at the sight of the boy and quickly let go of Sasuke's hand to run up him, "Ruto-kun!" Naruto turned his head to the little girl running up to him and smilled, "Imu-chan!" he then jumped of the log to quickly hug her. The both of them stepped back a bit to regard each other, "Sorry if I was a bit late, did you wait long?" Naruto shook his head in a negative, "No I just got here, I had to clean up the class after a prank so I was a bit scared if I came here late."

Sasuke frowned at the other two, he hated being ignored being that his father always favored his brother more than him so he quickly walked up to them. Naruto finally took notice of the other boy coming up to them and frowned, "Who're you?" Sasuke stopped about two feet away from him and glared, "You should tell your name first before asking others about theirs." Naruto glared back at him and was about to retort when Imca got in between the two.

"Hey you two be nice. Sasu-chan this is my new friend Naruto. Ruto-kun this is my cousin Uchiha Sasuke, I brought him here too play with us." Naruto grew a bit sad at that, he wanted to play with Imca alone together. He quickly shook the selfish thoughts out of his head, if Imca wanted her cousin to play with us then he'll be a good friend and accept it. Extending his right hand out in an offer to shake, Naruto smilled at the other boy. "Hi there, Naruto's the name and I hope will be good friends" Sasuke looked at the hand offered to him and hesitated to take it. He looked at his cousin and grimaced, she was giving him the same look his mother had given him this morning. Not wanting to look at it anymore he quickly shook Naruto's hands, "Uchiha Sasuke, yeah I'll be your friend."

Naruto opened his eyes in surprise at the other boy, not believing that he had made another friend so quickly (although the other was quite reluctant). Imca smiled at the two before grabbing both of them by the arm. "Say Ruto-kun, tell us what you did to Iruka-sensei today." Sasuke looked at Naruto in surprise, "You're in the academy too?"

"Yeah I'm a year older then you so that's why you never saw me before. Anyway come on I'll tell you guys the awesome prank I pulled today." The three kids talked and Naruto got both the Uchiha's laughing at his tale, the three then started playing a game of 'ninja' together. As time passed the three got hungry so Naruto brought them to a place that sold 'the food of the gods' according to him.

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><p>"This tastes really good Ruto-kun!" Naruto grinned at Imca, "I know right, nothing beats Ichiraku ramen!" Sasuke grunted at that, "Its good but not as good as tomatoes." Naruto looked at the raven boy in horror, "What did you say! Nothing is better than ramen especially a stupid vegetable!" Imca frowned at him a bit, she like tomatoes too. "But Ruto-kun you should really eat more vegetables. Their good for you." Sasuke smirked at him, "Yeah, if you eat nothing but ramen you're going to stay short like that for the rest of your life." Naruto was about to shout and curse at the other boy but a ladle came out of no where and knocked him on the head. "Ow! What the Fu-" and was promptly hit again, "Naruto-kun language! And what have I told you about making a scene in the stand?" Beside the boy was a 15 year old Ichiraku Ayame holding a ladle threateningly at a wimpering Naruto.<p>

"Sorry Ayame-neechan I'll be good." Naruto frowned and glared at Sasuke when he heard the other boy snicker behind him. Ayame finally took notice of the other two kids in the stand, "Naruto-kun who are these two?" Naruto grinned at his neechan before gesturing to the two Uchihas, "These two are my friends neechan. This is Uchiha Imca and her cousin Uchiha Sasuke." Imca smilled at the older girl before bowing slightly, "Nice to meet you Ayame-san." Sasuke turned to Ayame but only gave a nod of acknowledgement.

Ayame smilled at them and returned the greeting before looking at Imca up and down, when she was done she gave Naruto a playfull smile, "So this is the Imu-chan I've been hearing about. You grow up so fast Naruto." It took Naruto a few seconds to catch the underlying meaning in the sentence before his face turned redder then a tomato, "Ayame-neechan it's not like that!" Imca had a look of confusion on her face but Sasuke frowned at this, already knowing what the older girl meant.

Naruto turned back to his ramen and ate as fast as he can to cover his face. Sasuke looked at him in disgust, "Hey slow down idiot your getting broth everywhere! Didn't your parents teach you some manners?" The stand suddenly grew quiet and Naruto froze in place while Ayame grew a sad look. Imca looked at her friend in worry at the sudden shift in mood, "Ruto-kun? What's wrong?" The boy in question looked up at her before gazing back at his now empty bowl, "I don't have parents." Imca gasped in shock and Sasuke looked at him awkwardly knowing he had hurt Naruto's feelings but what can he do? He didn't know his new friend had no parents.

Naruto looked back at the two before giving them a big smile that was as fake as fake flowers but they didn't know that. "Hey what are you two so sad about? Don't worry about it you guys didn't know. Hokage-jiji said that they were great ninja and they died during the night of the kyuubi attack. That's why I'm going to be the best Hokage of all so my parents would be proud of me!" Ayame and Sasuke smiled at the boy while Imca giggled at his enthusiasm.

Imca smiled at her friend before nodding to herself, "You know Ruto-kun I don't have any parents either." Naruto turned to her in shock, "Really? I didn't know." Imca brought her teddy bear up so it reached to Naruto's eye level. "My parents died during the Kyuubi attack too so my grandparents took me in. Obaa-chan said that Kuma-kun (The bear) was a gift from my parents so that I won't be lonely." Naruto smiled before taking out his signature frog wallet, " I got something like that too see? This is Gama-chan." Imca giggle at the silly looking wallet but then started to laugh with Naruto joining with her. The mood was lifted again and Ayame couldn't help but squeal inside, the both of them were just too cute.

When they were done eating the two Uchihas bid farewell to their friend since it was getting a bit late. Before they parted the three of them promised each other to play again soon. Naruto made his way back to his apartment and got ready to sleep for the night. Today turned out to be one of the best days he ever had. He got to spend time with Imu-chan and had made a new friend in Sasuke even though he was a bit mean. He hoped that they could stay friends forever.

Hope, that was the key word. The fates had other plans then to grant his wish. There was still so much more fun to be had in toying with the lives of others. And they were definitely not done yet.

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><p>Author notes: So what do you guys think? I know Imca seems bland now but wait till the next chapter. Childhood will be done next chap so you guys don't have to wait long for genin. Hope you guys look at my profile to see the pics of imca, she's one of my favourite characters in valkyria chronicles so don't diss her that much. I know you readers in general don't like OC seeming as they're all so perfect but she has flaws I tell you. Don't worry about me adding more OC because Rina and Imca are the only one's that will make any impact in the story. Speaking of the blond princess you'll see a bit of her in the next chap. I only have one question for you guys, should Naruto stick with the original team 7 or go solo. Now the decision will only be official in chapter 3 but in the end I make the call. Thanks for the read, hope you enjoy and review please :3<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Damn this took a lot out of me. Seriously I was a bit stuck on where to go from here but I managed. Hope you all like this chapter cause I certainly did.

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><p><strong>CHAPTER THREE: Honourable Murderer<strong>

Sarutobi gazed at the lone Anbu kneeling in front of him. The agent was one of his best and was also the youngest. He had done it, he had succeeded in doing one of the most heinous acts a ninja can ever do when one was ordered to kill. The elimination of ones own clan. Looking at the young man in the eyes he could see remnants of tears but the boys face was set in stone.

'_What have we done?'_

48 Hours Earlier

"I challenge you Sasuke to a duel!" Uchiha Sasuke sighed at his friend's outburst. The white haired boy in front of him was now charging with his fist cocked back ready to knock it down onto the young Uchiha.

'_How did I get myself into this?'_

It had been two months since he had made friends with Naruto and he had to be honest with himself in saying his friend was a total retard. Oh sure the boy was fun to hang around with since most of the time he and Imca would be dragged here and there to perform some small task to prank a villager. They had spent a lot of time with the boy but what surprised him was the lack of intelligence in his head.

Most of his homework he and Imca had to help him in studying and the boy was extremely bad in proper taijutsu stances. Sure the boy had strength and stamina but it was all put to waste when a small well placed punch or kick in the many openings he provided would leave the boy sprawled on the ground. Though he was a year older the white haired boy kept losing to him since he had so many flaws.

With a small shift in posture the he side stepped the oncoming fist and quickly brought his leg out to sweep the other boy of his feet. Naruto quickly jumped to dodge but was now left open since he couldn't move in midair. Sasuke took his chance by twisting his body in a full 360 and delivered another kick which this time connected. '_This should knock him down.'_ Naruto couldn't bring his arms up in time to block so the kick had hit straight into his stomach. Spit flew form Naruto's mouth at the blow and Sasuke smirked in victory but his eyes widened in surprise when his leg was now being pinned in the other boys arms.

Naruto smirked at him before using the other boy's leg as leverage to launch himself headfirst at his opponent's skull. The resounding head on collision (literally) had brought both boys down to the ground. "Ow! What the hell Naruto! You don't just headbutt your enemies like that!" The other boy just laughed while standing up in victory, ignorant to the pain. "Haha so what Sasuke, I finally knocked you down! I win!" Both boys glared at each other and was about to start another fight when a voice stopped them.

"What are you two doing! Stop fighting already, you two are bleeding!" Imca quickly ran over to the two of them and at the mention of bleeding the boys finally noticed the trail of blood going down their face from their foreheads. The young girl took out some cloth from her backpack and dabbed it with some water to wet them up. She then started to clean the blood on their foreheads.

"Look what you both got yourselves into! You know I don't like to see you two fighting." Sasuke hissed in pain at the touch of the cloth, "Well it's not my fault since Naruto started charging at me." The white haired boy started smile sheepishly while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, "Hehe sorry Imu-chan but hey I finally won against Sasuke!" Naruto immediately regretted what he said as he looked into Imca's large eyes that had developed small tears in the corners and Sasuke cursed under his breath. It was always like this every time he and Naruto hurt each other whether it was from a spar or a fight. The two of them would get hurt first and then Imca would come berating them for their recklessness then he and/or Naruto would say something stupid that would make the girl start crying.

Naruto started to panic at this before comically kneeling down in front of the girl with his head down to the ground, "I'm sorry Imu-chan please forgive me! I swear I'll never start a fight with Sasuke like that again." Imca stopped the tears from falling before looking down to the boy, "You promise?"….. "Well… only if it's necessary?" Imca frowned at this but sighed in acceptance, after all there was no stopping the two when they needed to spar. "Ok I guess that's good enough but remember Ruto-kun, you promised."

Imca helped the two boys to stand and was about to start talking when a voice startled them from behind, "Sasuke, I see Imca-chan is still taking care of you." Sasuke stood up in surprise and recognition at the sound of the owner's voice. Turning his head he smiled in pure joy at the sight of his most precious person, "Nii-san your back!"

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><p>"So Itachi-san you're a ninja right? Are you strong?" Naruto had been quickly explained to who Uchiha Itachi was by Imca and that the reason he was able to sneak up on them was because he's a ninja. Right now the three Uchiha and one white haired prankster was walking back to the Uchiha compound. Sasuke glared at his friend, "Don't ask stupid questions Naruto. Nii-san is the strongest ninja in Konoha, right Nii-san?" Itachi smiled down at his little brother before messing up Sasuke's hair, "You shouldn't be so rude to your friends Sasuke and to answer your question Naruto-kun yes, I'm quite strong but I'm not the strongest. The strongest in the village goes to Hokage-sama but I think you already know that."<p>

Naruto grinned up at the older Uchiha, "That's why I'm going to be hokage someday, to be the strongest and have everybody recognize me." Itachi gave Naruto a neutral smile, "That's a good dream Naruto. Work hard and maybe someday I'll call you hokage-sama." Sasuke getting jealous of Naruto hogging his brothers attention quickly turned and tugged on the older boy's sleaves, "Ne Nii-san when did you get back? Did your mission go ok? Can you train me in my shurikenjutsu later?"

"I got back about three hours ago and had to file a report, normal procedure. I'm sorry Sasuke but you know I can't give away mission details, it's classified. I'll try to make time to train you Sasuke but there won't be if I get called out again." Sasuke grumbled under his breath about how unfair Itachi was being. Itachi smiled before turning to the lone girl in the group, "Imca-chan you've been so quiet the whole way, how's Oji-san and Oba-san?"

Imca gave a strained smile to her older cousin, "They're doing fine Itachi-niisan. Ojii-chan has been complaining like always that he was getting too old to take care of the Senbei Shop and Obaa-chan keeps getting mad at him for complaining. I guess everything is still the same." Imca looked down to the ground sadly while Sasuke and Naruto looked at her in worry. Ever since Imca told her grandparents that she was friends with Naruto the two old Uchiha practically went ballistic. They had warned her not to get close to the boy and that he was dangerous. Imca had cried for a whole week that they were being unfair and that Naruto wasn't dangerous but they wouldn't listen. Now a days she had a hard time communicating with her grandparents most of the time.

Itachi frowned at the girl's downcast look before ruffling her hair in act of comfort, he always had a soft spot for Sasuke and her. Imca pouted at him for ruining her hair but at least she wasn't looking so sad. Naruto smiled at the small bout of affection but frowned a bit in jealousy. He had always wondered what having an older sibling to comfort you was like and it hurt to see something that he'll never have. Naruto quickly wiped of any hint of sadness and replaced with a smile so wide it looked like it hurt, "Hey guys I think I gotta split, Its getting late and I have to eat dinner so I'll see you all tomorrow."

Itachi turned to the boy and smilled at him, "Well Naruto-kun it was good to meet you. Thank you for always taking care of Sasuke and Imca." Sasuke scoffed at that while Imca giggled, "More like it's the other way around." Said the young raven, Naruto's response was to stick his tongue out at him before smiling at the other two while waving of in goodbye. "Well then by Itachi-san, Imu-chan, Sasuke." If one was paying attention to the young Anbu commander they would've noticed the slight frown on his lips and the brief flash of the sharingan.

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><p>The next day<p>

The academy bell ringed throughout the building signaling the end of today's lessons. Kids from every class left their classrooms through the doors but some daring ones jumped out of the windows while others slowly packed and took their time. Naruto quickly ran through the halls before stopping to the one room he was looking for. Opening the door he surveyed the room to look for any sign of his friends. There was an overly weight boy at the back trying to wake the person right next to him with a pineapple like hair style. A boy with a white dog on his head jumped out of the window and another one with shades was writing down something in a book.

At the far left of the room were two girls that caught his attention, well one of them did cause he din't know the other one. You had to be quite stupid if you didn't recognize Konoha's Kiroi Hime even if he had the attention span of a peanut (No offense Naruto :P). The girl had long strawberry blond hair that was kept in a high ponytail and dark blue eyes that had a slight tint of purple. The blonds companion was not as famous as her but was of the same standing.

Hyuga Hinata listened with rapped attention to her bestfriend's story about the time her Kakash-nii came and summoned his pack of nin-dogs to play with her. Her attention was broken however at the sight of a boy with snowy white hair and striking blue eyes. A blush spread across her face when she realized he was staring at her or more precisely her friend, _"Why is he staring at me? Do I have something on my face? Do I look funny? Does he like me? Oh no I think I'm gonna faint!"_ Ah the power of love at first sight.

Rina looked at her friend in worry when the young Hyuga went more quiet then usual and quickly panicked when the red faced girl suddenly collapse in her seat, "Hinata! What's wrong Hinata! Speak to me!" Naruto sweat dropped at the sight of the blond girl shaking her friend roughly in panic while the other girl had a dreamy smile on her face, _"Those two are weird."_ "Oi you going to just stare at those two all day or you wanna get out of here?" Naruto glared at the smirking Uchiha before frowning, he looked back at the class but there was no sight of his other friend. "Where's Imca? I don't see her anywhere."

"She suddenly caught a cold last night so she took a sick leave today." Sasuke frowned at this, usually he sat at the far right of the room right next to the window and Imca would sit next to him so that other girls won't bother him. Now that she was sick he was all but alone to fend of Sakura, Ino and most of the other girls. At the mention of his fangirls he took a quick look behind and grimaced at the sight of the girls staring back at him. Some of them were now slowly creeping up to him like a predator stalking its prey.

Naruto looked at the girls and chuckled nervously, "Uh Sasuke, did you guys learn rope tying exercises today?" Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at him before looking back and a look of horror crossed his face at the sight of the fan girls readying lassos, "Quick Naruto we have to run!" The white haired boy didn't need to be told twice before the both of them sped off like the devil was chasing them. "Don't look back! Don't ever look back!"

The two ran and ran until they reached the clearing where they had first met before slowing down to a stop. Out of breath they collapsed on the ground panting for air before the two friends started laughing at the whole situation. When they had gained their breath and rested the two started their usual spars all the while having a great time. Before long it was late in the afternoon and the two decided to call it quits for the day. Sasuke smiled and waved back in goodbye at his friend before walking back to the Uchiha clan compound, blissfully unaware of the tragic and bloody sight that awaited him.

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><p>Uchiha Clan Compound<p>

Imca stood trembling at the sight that greeted her downstairs, her hands gripping her stuffed teddy bear in untold fear to her small body for support. The bodies of her grandparents were left lying on the wooden floor, their blood seeping from the fatal sword wounds on their lifeless corpses. Slowly, she looked up at the culprit that was the cause of all this. Tears flowed down her face as she recognized the face of her older cousin Itachi. Blood was dripping off the sword that was held in the young murderer's right hand with not a speck of the life giving liquid on his body armor.

Her lips quivered as she desperately tried to summon her voice in an attempt to call for help but all that left her mouth was a small pitiful whimper. Itachi looked on without a hint of an expression on his face as he slowly lifted his sword above his head.

"I'm sorry." Those words were the last thing she heard before the sword descended onto her.

Then blood flew.

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><p>Auther Notes: OHOHOHO weren't expecting me to end here did ya? Well I'm sorry about ending it here since I did say I would finish the childhood ark in this chapter but I actually didn't have any clue on how to make it continue. I promise I'll end this ark next chapter so be patient guys. In the last chapter I asked you readers on if you want Naruto to go solo or team and three of you answered with solo. I'm sorry to say but I think I'm sticking with teams from now on. I had a nice conversation with my friend a couple of days back and he got me thinking on some interesting plot and some holes in my story. To <strong>hollyshortfowl<strong> your review took me back a bit and i kind of liked it but I don't think I'll be able to write a story like that so sorry. Anyway I hope you guys like the small scene with Rina and Hinata in the classroom. Expect a long chapter next cause there's gonna be a whole lot of change. Have a nice day, hope you enjoyed the read and review please :3


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Hey there everybody! This chapter took me a while to finish and to tall you all the truth I was actually delaying the chap because I was lazy. So as promised this will be the end of the childhood ark and I made it extra long for you all. My motivation was sapped away from me when I realized I only had 3 reviews for last chapter so I hope you all will review more so I'll know all your opinions and my faults on the chapter. Hope you all enjoy!

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><p><strong>CHAPTER FOUR: Innocence Broken <strong>

Naruto knew something was wrong that morning when he was going to the academy. How could he not when everyone around him looked were running around whispering to each other about some killing spree. He couldn't help but dread when he heard same words coming from different conversations. Finally giving in to curiosity he sneaked up to a pair of civilian men to spy on their conversation.

"Hey did you here?"

"Yeah, can't believe they're all dead."

"I know what you mean. A whole clan up and got killed in just one night, were not talking about any normal clan either were talking about the Uchiha."

"It's weird though that no one in the village heard anything. 200 people killed and not a sound went off."

Naruto's eyes were wide in shock at the news. Then his whole body shook at the sudden realization in his head, _"Sasuke! Imu-chan!"_ Naruto ran as fast as he could at the direction of the Uchiha clan compounds, panic, adrenaline and most of all worry rushed through his whole body. When he finally arrived at the main entrance there was already a large crowd of people formed. The only thing that stopped the crowd from entering was the large number of shinobi blocking and inspecting the area inside.

Not bothering with the idea of rushing into the crowd and using his brain, he jumped off to the outer side of the compound walls till he reached a portion of the wooden borders that was slightly off colored then the rest and unattached. Naruto carefully moved the unattached portion to the side and squeezed his body through the makeshift opening. Finally home free Naruto ran off to the direction in what he knew was the Senbei shop that was Imca's house.

"Please be safe, please be safe, please be safe." Those three words were repeated in his head like a mantra in an act to calm his nerves. His face brightened up when he caught sight of the shop about several meters away but it was short lived when a hand suddenly clamped on his right shoulder stopping him from moving forward. Turning his head back the sight that greeted him was of a man dressed in a blue jumpsuit with a Konoha chunin vest, a bandana over his head and a senbon in his mouth.

"How the hell did you get in here kid! Didn't you know that this place is off limits?" Naruto struggled in the man's grip but the strength of a nine year old kid was nothing compared to grown mans, especially when said man was a trained shinobi.

"Let me go! Let me go! I have to see them! I have to make sure their ok!" Try as he might but the boy wasn't going anywhere. Genma getting tired of the boy's struggling quickly grabbed the kids other shoulder and roughly spun him so he was facing him.

"Calm down kid! Who are you talking about? If you're trying to find any of your Uchiha friends then you're out of luck cause their all gone." At the mention of the Uchiha's being gone Naruto was reminded that his friend were probably dead. Lowering his head, the white hared boy gripped his hands painfully into fists while biting his lower lip refusing to cry.

Genma cursed under his breath; maybe he shouldn't have said it so roughly. Giving the boy a slight squeeze as a sign of reassurance, he kneeled down so he was at the kid's eye level. "Hey I'm sorry kid but the truths the truth. You can't beat yourself up over what happened." Ok sure it wasn't the nicest thing to say to a kid that just lost some friends but atleast give him some points for trying.

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head left to right, "But they can't be dead. Sasuke... Imca… They just can't be dead!" Genma frowned at him but blinked in sudden realization, "Did you say Sasuke? As in Uchiha Sasuke?" Naruto stood stock still at his question before looking at him with eyes filled with hope, "Yeah Uchiha Sasuke. Is he ok? Is he alive! Please tell me!"

Genma looked away from Naruto's hopeful gaze with a grimace, _"Oh man look what you've got yourself into now Genma! Should I tell him? I mean there wasn't an order saying that I couldn't. But… Ah god damn it why am I such a nice guy?"_ Sighing loudly, the young tokubetsu jounin stood up while making a few hand seals. Done with the sequence he offered Naruto a hand, "Come on kid we gotta go."

Naruto looked up at him before hesitantly taking his hand, "Where are we going?" Genma turned away from the boy before sending out a pulse of chakra to finish the jutsu.

"The hospital."

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><p>Naruto stood numb as he stared into a glass panel where beyond it his raven haired male friend was resting in a hospital bed. The ninja that brought him to the hospital; Genma, had asked for the room where Uchiha Sasuke was currently being treated in. When they had arrived Naruto didn't know what to expect but the sight of Sasuke just staring of at the opposite side of the room with a completely blank look was not one of them. The Uchiha boy looked dead and if it wasn't for Genma reassuring him that the other boy was alive and well he wouldn't have believed it.<p>

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" Sarutobi wasn't exactly expecting to meet the young pariah when he went to check up on the health of one Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto turned to the old leader and gave a weak smile, "Hey Jiji, sorry for skipping class today. Is Sasuke going to be alright?" Thin lipped, the old leader stared at the unresponsive child on the bed before turning to his pseudo grandson. "Don't worry Naruto. We have the best doctors in all of fire country so Sasuke-kun will be just fine." Naruto gave a grateful look at him but the mood was broken when a doctor came and interrupted them.

"Ah Hokage-sama there you are. Regarding the two patients that came in today I have good news and bad news. Would you like a report now?" The doctor was a man in his mid 40's with brown hair that was swept back, brown eyes and a pair of glasses. This man was Dr. Yakushi, currently head doctor of the hospital. The Sandaime looked to the man then back to Naruto, "Naruto I have business to take care of. Why don't you go back to the academy now, if you hurry then you won't miss the other classes." Naruto frowned at the mention of the academy and the obvious way the old man was trying to get rid of him.

"No thanks Jiji, you're not getting rid of me that easily. I know you're going to talk about Sasuke and I want in." Sarutobi sighed at the boy and was about to send him away when Dr. Yakushi interrupted him. Said doctor squatted down so he could see Naruto eye to eye, "Naruto-kun was it? Are you a friend of Sasuke-kun?" Naruto looked at him suspiciously; all adults should know who he was without even asking him. "Yeah I'm his friend so I'm not leaving until I know what's going on." The doctor smiled at him, "Well then Naruto-kun it's good that you're here. Sasuke-kun really needs a friend right now so I hope you can help him as best as you could." Naruto grinned at the man before turning to the village leader and giving him a shit eating grin at his victory.

Sarutobi sighed before turning to the doctor, "Well then Yakushi-san you can begin your report now, tell me the good news first." The doctor nodded and turned to the glass panel to observe the young Uchiha in the other room, "Sasuke-kun is stable but his mind is basically scrambled. That genjutsu he was in was so strong I'm surprise he's not a vegetable right now. It's going to take a while for his brain to fix itself back but he'll make a full recovery in two or three weeks." Sarutobi frowned at this, "Will he be stable enough to continue shinobi training?" Dr. Yakushi grimaced at the question, "There is no doubt that emotional scarring and brain damage will persist. Physically he's fine but mentally he's a flight risk. It's going to take lots of psychological therapy to stabilize him."

The Sandaime closed his eyes in thought to all this before reopening them again, "And what of Uchiha Imca?" Naruto turned to Sarutobi at this, Imca… was alive? Dr. Yakushi sighed before fixing his glasses, "That's another problem."

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><p>It was dark. There was pain. Everything was a whole blur. She could still remember their faces. HIS face was there. The one who did all this. There was so much blood. No one could hear her. Her screams. It was all so… so…<p>

Quiet

"Imu-chan?"

Suddenly there was light. A snowy white appeared in her vision. It was a boy with snow white hair and bright blue eyes. He looked like he was surprise but most of all happy. Happiness turned to shock and disbelief when she uttered those three words to him.

"Who are you?"

Outside the room observing the two kids in the room were the Sandaime and Dr. Yakushi. "As you can see Hokage-sama the patient suffers from temporary memory loss. It's nothing serious but it's a little unsettling. She can't remember recent things that happened before the incident like take for example the merchant festival that happened last month or any lessons taught in the academy that has been taught a week ago. The weird thing is she can remember the massacre very clearly; it was quite fascinating how she could recite what happened verbally in such detail. Of course I only meant it in a scientific way. She also suffered from a deep sword wound, a slash from her right shoulder all the way to her left hip. It's a miracle she's even alive when we found her with the amount of blood she lost. Amazingly the wound didn't even hit any vitals, almost like it was meant not to kill her."

Sarutobi continued to gaze at Naruto standing infront of Imca's bed. The girl gave Naruto a flat stare, waiting for the boy to respond. She was wearing a hospital gown and under it covering her whole upper body was medical wrap. "….I see….What do you think is the cause of the memory loss?"

"Hypothetically speaking it's probably because she was trying to suppress the memory of the massacre. The brain responded on her needs but it accidentally suppressed the wrong memories which in turn enhanced the most recent memory about the massacre. This is all purely speculations of course; we'll need to run a few more tests to confirm it." The door to the room opened and Naruto had walked out to join them. His head was down and his hands were balled up into fists, "Jiji, who did this to Imu-chan and Sasuke?"

Sarutobi looked down at the angered child, "If I do tell you Naruto, what are you going to do about it?" Naruto snarled under his breath, "What do you think Jiji! I'm gonna chase him down and beat the living shit out of him!" Sarutobi narrowed his eyes at the young boy, "It's too late to catch the culprit now Naruto. Even if you do which is a confirmed impossible, you would be killed in less than a second." Naruto glared at the old leader as hard as he can, "He hurt my friends! I need to find him! He's not going to get away with this; He can't get away with this!"

Sarutobi had had enough of the boy's endless shouting. Moving one step closer to Naruto, he released a small minuscule amount of killing intent to get the boy's attention and to also intimidate him. "Get your act together boy and listen to yourself! The man who did this is a fully trained killer. He was one of the best shinobi that we have ever trained. He was an Anbu, the best of the best. A two year academy student won't even be more than a small speck to the man. Tell me Naruto what can you hope to do against someone who had killed one of the most prestigious clans in only one night?"

Naruto trembled in fear of the old shinobi standing imposingly in front of him. Never in his whole life did the man he thought as a surrogate grandfather ever became this angry at him. No, this wasn't anger. It wasn't like those hateful stares he gets from the local populace. No this was similar to the times Iruka-sensei looked at him when he did something wrong like pulling a prank or skipping class. It was disappointment, pure and utter disappointment. Only this time the feeling was so oppressive that Naruto couldn't stand looking the elder in the eye. Finally having had enough, Naruto turned and dashed away from the two adults and out of the hospital.

Dr. Yakushi frowned at the Sandaime, "Pardon me Hokage-sama, I know it's not my place to say what you do or say to the boy but did you really have to be so hard on him?" Sarutobi glanced at the doctor before sighing under his breath, "I know what I did was harsh but the boy needs to be taught a lesson. Not everything can be solved with brute force and not all situations are easy to overcome. With what he knows already about the situation he should have already figured out that the culprit of this massacre is too strong to fight and totally impossible for someone of his level. He's too impulsive and easily angered at small things. I don't blame him for his lack of intellect, he's had a hard life what with the constant anger and small sabotages in his education. I've already changed his teachers and also his combat instructor for the year but the boy still lacks the drive to do any studying in the academy. His results are poor and with the added distractions this whole fiasco will cause, I'll not be surprised if he gets pulled back a year."

Dr. Yakushi stared at his leader in complete silence. It was obvious that the old leader cares very much for the white haired pariah but to him the man was expecting too much on one boy. "I'm sorry to hear that Hokage-sama. Still, Naruto is only a little boy, you honestly can't expect so much from a child especially during this whole mess." After what he said the Sandaime looked like he aged so much and the doctor honestly regretted his words.

"Your right Yakushi-san but there are reasons why expect so much from the boy. You know of his burden and his duty. I honestly wished that I have the power to change all that has happened." _'And I also regret the decision to place the burden of a jinchuuriki on the boy in the first place.'_

Through all this no one had noticed the injured girl watching the whole spectacle with a blank look.

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><p>Naruto sat on the bed in his small apartment just staring at the floor. In his head he replayed the whole situation in the hospital with Imca and the Sandaime all over repeatedly.<p>

"_Neh Imca-chan, don't you recognize me?" The girl in question shook her head in a negative."Come on it can't be that hard to remember someone like me, we're friends." Again she shook in a no, "I'm sorry… whoever you are. I don't know you." Naruto trembled at the whole situation, his first friend can't remember who he was. Naruto took a step forward and moved his right hand to her but she flinched and moved away. At that moment the young boy felt a deep pain in his chest, like someone stabbed him with a knife close to his heart. "N-Neh I-Imca-chan, d-do you know who did this to y-you?" asked the boy shakily. Imca clutched the bed kilt and frowned when she remembered her attacker. She turned away from Naruto in an act to shield herself, "I'm sorry, can you please leave me alone. You're making me uncomfortable."_

_Naruto stood there for a minute then slowly almost robotically turned to leave. When he reached the door he stopped, "….. It's ok if you don't remember Imca-chan. I'll always b there if you need me."_

After that he was so angry. He wanted to find the guy who did all this and give him a beating he won't forget but the Sandaime stopped him. Jiji had never looked so intimidating. He was so disappointed in how he acted but it wasn't his fault. Naruto looked down at his hands that clutched his pants leg in a vice grip. Suddenly a tear dropped on his hand. He tried to control it but more came.

"Damn it. Damn it. Stop crying. All I wanted was to help but… God damn it… Sasuke… Imca-chan… I'm sorry."

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><p>Two weeks later<p>

After the incident at the hospital Naruto had not come back there at all nor had he visited the Hokage or played any pranks on the villagers. At the academy he was just staring of in space not bothering with any of the subjects. The students around him were still talking about the fall of the Uchiha and the theories in how it happened. He rolled his eyes in annoyance every time one of them came up with something totally unbelievable even when everyone knew about what really happened. The Hokage had announced that Uchiha Itachi had murdered everyone in that one night and had declared him an S-rank missing-nin. He was honestly surprised at that. No wonder Imca didn't want to talk about it and Sasuke was practically half dead, the guy was family and he betrayed them all.

Iruka was worried about him since he wasn't doing well in school. The last exam he had scored dead last and if he didn't do well in the next one he was going to have to take supplementary lessons or worse be held back a year. All this flew by without a hint of care from him. Right now he was walking back to the clearing. It was the only place he could find solace in, where he could just kick back and relax. But today he wasn't alone, today he had company.

"Sasuke?" indeed right there in front of him was the young raven himself. The boy had his back to him and was facing the lake. Sasuke slowly turned and faced the other boy. Minutes pass as neither of them said a word, Naruto noted the boy looked paler and that his eyes were as cold as ice. His friend looked so different then what he used to look like, almost as if he had aged many years. Then Sasuke moved closer to Naruto until he was about a foot away from the other boy. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "Naruto… fight me." Before Naruto could register what his friend said a fist courtesy of the young Uchiha came and hit him square in the face which knocked him to the ground.

Getting up from the fall Naruto winced in pain as he faced the other boy, "What the hell was that for Sasuke!" The other boy didn't answer as he got into a fighting stance and rushed forward. Naruto tried to dodge Sasuke's relentless assault but being the less skilled of the two he wasn't doing very well. Naruto gasped in pain as Sasuke managed to land a hit at his solar plexus which brought Naruto on his knees from getting the air knocked out of him. The raven haired boy then followed it up with a reverse back hand to Naruto's face making the other boy to kiss the ground again.

Sasuke glared at Naruto as the other boy shakily stood up from the blow. An ugly bruise started to form on Naruto's right cheek as he spat the excess dirt and blood from his mouth. "Stop dodging and fight me Naruto!" The white haired boy growled and balled up his hands into fists. "Fine, you asked for it Sasuke!" Naruto dashed straight to Sasuke, intending to beat whatever frustration he had onto the other boy.

With Naruto being the less skilled one he was constantly knocked down to the ground but everytime he stood up to face the other boy. Sasuke knew he could beat Naruto hands down but his body was getting from the constant back and forth assault while the other boy kept getting up. It got to the point where Sasuke started slaking and making mistakes which gave Naruto ample opportunity to land a hard hit every once in a while. The fight lasted until both of them were on their knees panting on the ground facing each other with bruises, cuts and blood staining their clothing.

The both of them stood up at the same time and raised their fists for one last strike. They ran, fists flew and now they stood glaring at each other in the eyes with a fist lodged in their faces courtesy of the other. Finally the both of them collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion. There was complete silence throughout the clearing with the only noise being pants and wheezing coming from the two boys. Naruto didn't know they would have gone this far. It was always Imca that stopped the fights in time before him and Sasuke got hurt badly enough. A part of him had hope the raven haired girl would burst into the clearing with her trusty medical kit beside her. Naruto flopped himself on his back so he could face the sky. The sky was so blue and there were so many clouds up there that just gazing at them made him so drowsy, or maybe it was just because he took a little too many hits in the head.

The sound of movement caught his attention as he turned to Sasuke doing the exact same thing as him. The two stared up at the sky until Sasuke broke the silence, "My brother killed my clan." Naruto only frowned at the boy's statement, "I know."

"He killed everyone except Imca."

"… I know"

"He said he did it all just to test his limits." Naruto grit his teeth in anger but he didn't interrupt his friend.

"I'm going to kill him." That got Naruto's attention. The white haired boy turned his head and looked at his friend. He could see the anger in his eyes. The hate was so strong Naruto had to stop himself from flinching at it. "I wasn't strong enough to take him down. I'm too weak. I need to get stronger and stronger until I can fight him face to face" Naruto didn't know how to respond to his friend. What could he even say? All he wanted was for them to be like they were before. Just him, Sasuke and Imca… Imca… Naruto widened his eyes in realization.

"What will happen to Imca-chan? What if he comes after her?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at that. "I won't let him take the last family I have left. I'll kill myself before I let that happen." Sasuke stood up and looked down at Naruto, the both of them looked each other in the eye for about half a minute before Sasuke continued. "You're weak too Naruto. I could have killed you if I had a kunai when we started fighting. If you want to get closer to Imca again then get stronger. I won't let some idiot jeopardize her safety." With that Sasuke turned and walked out of the clearing leaving a tired and hurt Naruto to contemplate his words.

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><p>Uchiha Imca stood in the middle of her family's living room. In front of her, leaning on the opposite wall was a large sword easily two and a half times her size. The hilt was thick and long like pole, was colored white with red and grey bands running around it and had a large blue hand guard. At the end of the hilt was a blue metal connector that was attached to another smaller hilt parallel to the first. Both hilts were connected to a large black rectangular slab with seal like markings engrave into it. At the end of the black slab was a large circular hole with a diameter of an orange. Attached to the black slab was a large one edged blade that had a width of half a foot. (Picture in profile)<p>

The young girl stared blankly at the sword. Her mind was still in such a mess from the attack. The doctors said that she had lost some of her memories of the past few months but all in all she was fine if you ignore the giant sword wound on her torso. She had to take extra classes in the academy to refresh her mind on the subjects. The memories of the attack were clear as day in her mind. She could still feel the cold sweat that was pouring out of her body and the way her blood just froze in fear. Imca shook her head to clear the dark thoughts from her mind.

Standing up she approached the giant blade and tried to reach for the hilt. The sword fell down to the ground with a loud slam and Imca winced at the sight and sound. Grasping the hilt with both hands the girl tried to lift up the blade but the sword was so heavy, it didn't even so much as budge. A few more attempts and still no luck she dropped to her knees from the strain of her muscles. Imca narrowed her eyes at the blade and remembered the origins of the large weapon.

_The little raven haired girl stared at her grandfather as he prepared to oil and clean the giant blade on the floor. "Jii-chan, why do we have this sword in the house? Nobody uses it." Uchiha Teyaki looked at his granddaughter with a sad smile before placing a hand on her head and ruffling her hair. "This sword Imca-chan is special and is also a very important part of our family. You see this sword has been passed down in our family for generations. I used it in the second shinobi war and when I was injured your father took it up and used it in the third shinobi war. It's a very important heirloom and one day when you get strong enough you will be the one to carry this sword. It's name is Varu." _(Its originally Var but being japanese they pronounce it as Varu)

_Imca frowned at the mention of her using the giant weapon, "I don't think I'll like using it. It's so big and I don't like hurting others." Teyaki laughed at the girls innocence, "Haha you're such a sweet girl Imca-chan. Maybe your right, I don't think I'll ever want to see you use it on anyone. You're such a little angel." _

Imca felt a tear run down her cheek as she remembered her time with her grandfather. The little girl stood up and roughly rubbed the tears away before narrowing her eyes. "I'm sorry Jii-chan... I can't be your little angel anymore. I'm gonna get strong enough to carry our family blade. Then I'm gonna get even stronger so I can be the best. Then… I'm going to kill Uchiha Itachi."

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><p>Naruto lay in his bed wide awake. He tried to sleep but Sasuke's words were still running around in his head. Was Sasuke right? Was he really that weak? And if he was weak, could he really protect Imca from someone like Sasuke's brother? The Sandaime said that it was impossible for someone like him to even try to find the man. A tap on his window interrupted his thoughts. Turning to the window he could see a crow tapping on the glass. Sitting upright, Naruto was about to shoo the bird away when suddenly his body froze as he locked eyes with the feathery pest. The last thing he knew was the sight of the bird's red eye with three tomoe surrounding the pupil.<p>

He could feel it… water… darkness… it was all so cold. Opening my eyes I found myself in a sewer like hallway. It was dirty and pipes ran all the way along the walls. Standing up, I noticed the floor was covered in water that reached up to my ankles. "Well that explains why it's so wet here." Naruto scoped out the area in search of a way out. "Hey! Come out here whoever you are! I'll kick your ass for dumping me in a sewer you assholes!" His voice carried out in an echo in the sewer like halls but his taunts yielded no results.

"Well shit I'm all alone; guess I'll have to find my way out." He started walking down the path for god knows how long. It seemed like time had no effect in this place. There was one thing he did realize though; the numbers of pipes along the walls were increasing. He could see that some of the pipes were glowing blue while others had a feint red in them. Finally he had reached a chamber like room but the ceiling was nowhere in sight; it was just a deep never ending darkness. In front of him he noticed there was a large podium in the middle of the room. It had a large scroll about twice his size and it was wrapped in chains which connected to five pointed pillars making it look like it was trapped in a pentagon or a star. Finally he noticed a figure in a black cloak standing beside the scroll.

"Hey! Were you the one who dumped me here! If it's like that then I'm gonna beat you till you tell me how to get out of here!" The man he now noted didn't bother to acknowledge him and continued on to inspect the podium. Getting angry at the man's lack of attention, Naruto approached him wearily incase the man turned to attack him. When he got about ten feet from his target the man turned to regard him. Instantly Naruto froze as he recognized the person under the hood. How could he not? This was the man who had killed an entire clan and had hurt both his friends.

"Uchiha… Itachi…"

The murderer only regarded him with a blank stare before nodding his head to him, "Naruto-san, it's good to see you again." The nine year old couldn't believe his eyes. The Sandaime's and Sasuke's words came back to him and Naruto now knew what the old man and his friend were saying. He wouldn't stand a chance to this man. He couldn't even fight a boy that was a year younger than him in a straight up match so he'll definitely be slaughtered if he even tried anything against the man before him.

"Why are you here? Did you come back to kill Sasuke and Imca?" Itachi frowned at the mention of his surviving family before looking back to the scroll beside him. "No Naruto-san, I won't fight them, not yet. The both of them need to get stronger if they plan to fight me. Right now they won't even realize if I pierced their hearts by the time they notice I was even there."

"… Then why did you leave them alive?" Itachi stared into the younger boy's eyes. "That's for me to know and for Sasuke and Imca to find out. Let's not talk about them Naruto-kun, may I call you Naruto-kun?" The boy in question didn't reply. "Well then Naruto-kun right now I want to talk about you." Naruto twitched at the man's words, half in fear and half in curiosity. "What do you mean you want to talk about me?" Itachi raised his right hand and swept it across the room in gesture to the chamber they were in. "Do you know where this place is Naruto-kun? Do you what it is?

"What does it even matter?" Itachi then pointed his hand to Naruto himself, "Ah but Naruto-kun it does matter. This place were both in is your mind or more specifically the seal above your heart." Naruto looked at the man as if he grew a second head, "What do you mean my mind? What seal? I don't understand what you're even talking about." Itachi stared down at the boy, "Still so ignorant I see, you'll never be able to get stronger if you continue like this Naruto-kun" Itachi slowly approached the boy until he was about a foot away from him. Naruto couldn't move, his body didn't listen to him when he yeld at it in his mind to fucking run.

"In the future Naruto-kun you'll start asking questions; questions no one is willing to answer. It will be up to you how you obtain these answers you seek. But the answers you find might not even be the right answers at all." Itachi moved his body so he could see what's behind him. Naruto looked up in confusion and turned to what had caught the man's interest. What he saw in the darkness opposite of him was something that will haunt him and interest him for the coming years of his life. It was a gigantic cage with each metal bar about the size of a house and it reached all the way up into the darkness above. Behind the bars was complete darkness but his eyes began to make out a shape of sorts. He couldn't see properly but whatever it was must be huge.

"It's still asleep." Naruto turned his attention back to the killer in front of him that spoke. Itachi looked back at Naruto before walking away to the entrance of the chamber. "Get strong Naruto-kun. You're going to need it" Before Naruto can question him any further the whole room was covered in darkness and Naruto found himself jumping up in bed. His breaths came in startled gasps and his whole body was drenched with sweat. Was it all a dream? It was all so real though. Naruto didn't know what to believe anymore but if one thing is for sure he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.

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><p>The next day<p>

Naruto sat in his seat staring at the clock in the classroom, waiting for the bell to ring. He was so tired from what happened yesterday with Itachi and his words. He was about to drift off into sleep when the academy bell rang signaling the end of today's classes. Before he could jump out of his seat a hand came and clamped down on his right shoulder. Looking beside him was an unhappy Iruka staring down at him, "Not so fast Naruto, I need to talk to you after class. Everyone else can go home." The rest of the class left with a few students snickering at the white haired boy thinking he was going to get punished again.

When the class was finally empty he walked down the steps till he was standing in front of the teacher's desk. Iruka looked at Naruto in worry, "Naruto is something wrong? You don't make as much noise as you use too and you haven't made any pranks at all, not that I'm complaining. Your results on the mock test we had last week were so bad compared to your usual ones. Talk to me Naruto." The boy in question refused to look Iruka in the eye and opted to stare out the window. Iruka sighed at the boy's stubbornness, "If you don't talk to me then I won't know how to help you Naruto. Sandaime-sama had asked me to confront you on your behavior lately; he's worried that you're not coping well with ninja training."

At the mention of the Sandaime Naruto stood rigid and his eyes widened a bit with his lips pressed in a tight line. Iruka saw all this and frowned, "Naruto, did something happen between you and the Sandaime?" Naruto looked towards the ground for a few seconds before meeting his teacher in the eye. "Ne Iruka-sensei… Am I weak?" Iruka raised an eyebrow at the boy's question, "Well Naruto you can't expect to take on thieves and mercenaries at your age when you're not even a full fledge genin yet." Naruto shook his head at the man's statement. "No I mean am I weak for someone in my year?"

Iruka frowned at that, was the boy having confidence isues? It was quite surprising seeing his favorite student (Though he'll never admit it) so unsure of himself. "Well Naruto to be honest you're not exactly the best I've ever had the pleasure of teaching. You don't listen to my lectures and you skip most of the class. Your written tests show that you're not really book smart at all but I believe it's because of lack of practice. Your taijutsu is subpar at best, you have good stamina and you're quite fast but you lack finesse and you're stances need work. Your shuriken and kunai throwing is off balance so you keep missing the target. The only thing I can say you're good at is in your traps and stealth exercises."

Naruto winced at all his faults but he couldn't fight back at all since everything was spot on. "Gee Iruka-sensei you really don't hold back." Iruka smiled at him, "It's my job as a teacher to know where my students stand and how to help them." Naruto smiled at him for a moment before looking down at his feet again, "… I'm going to have to repeat the year aren't I" Iruka chose to not confirm the boy's statement. An awkward silence drifted between student and teacher, both unsure what to say to the other.

"… I… I want to get stronger Iruka-sensei." Iruka stared at him before moving around the table and kneeling in front of the boy, "…Alright Naruto. I'll help you get stronger." The two smiled at each other before Iruka stood up, "Now, let's go get some ramen Naruto." Naruto grinned up at the man before following him out of the class.

* * *

><p>Two months later<p>

"Class settle down and listen up." Everyone didn't listen to the teacher in front and continued in their own business. Iruka twitched in suppressed anger at the blatant disrespect, "SHUT UP YOU PIECE OF SHITS" Now that got their attention. The class was now so quiet you can hear a pin drop.

"Good, now that I have your attention we may proceed with today's lessons but before that I have an important announcement to make. We have a new student joining us today and he will be with you for the rest of you academy years so treat him well." At the mention of a new student coming to class everyone had their interests' peak. Namikaze Rina turned to her friend Hinata, "I hope whoever is coming is nice. It'll be nice if it was another girl." Hinata nodded in agreement with her.

Sasuke looked on with only a small amount of interest. He turned to his cousin and noted her staring blankly at their teacher and Sasuke frowned at that. The girl wasn't the same since the massacre and because of it she hardly shown any emotion that recognized her as the sweet innocent girl she was before. He'll make Itachi pay for doing this to her. Iruka silenced the class once more before turning to the classroom door.

"You may come in now." The door slid open to reveal the new student who walked in the class. Sasuke widened his eyes in surprise before letting a smirk appear on his face. Imca gave off no reaction but you could see the thinning of her lips and the slight widening of her eyes to show her recognition. Hinata blushed red in remembrance and Rina frowned at the new student. She couldn't place it but she felt that she knew the boy standing in front of the class, call it a gut feeling (Literally). The rest of the class burst into whispers with some of the students recognizing who the new student was.

The white haired boy smirked at them. He could tell that he was going to fit in just right, "Name's Naruto; just Naruto. I'm going to kick each and every one of your asses."

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><p>Auther Notes: So how do you like it? Yeah it seems a little rushed but I tried the best I can to make it decent. Now that that's out of the way I can finally get into the main plot. Genin time people XD I hope you all enjoyed it. Review to let me know of any complaints and advice or just to congratulate on a job well done. This is KitsuneLovers signing off :3<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

** Disclaimer**: Helloooooo everybodyyyyyy. Sorry this took so long, was in my gaming mood for the past two weeks and was just finishing up some games. As promised this is the start of the genin ark and also the first few real fight scenes of switching fates. I'm not really that good in my fighting scenes so please review and tell me what I did wrong. Hope you all enjoy.

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><p><strong>CHAPTER FIVE: A Little Bit of This and That<strong>

He could hear them. It was dark wherever he was, nothing but pure black. They're voices echoed in his head. It was like hearing thousands of faint disembodied whispers right next to your ears.

_Darkness… Light_

_Black… White_

_Death… And Life_

_Bound by Lies… Forbidden from the Truth… Even Truth is a Lie…_

_Lies… Lies… Lies, Lies, Lies Lies Lies LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES __**LLIIIIEEEEEEESSSSSS…..!**_

"AAAaaaahhh!" Naruto sat up in his bed in panic. His breathing came out in gasps and pants. Sweat coated his whole body. The young boy looked left and right before forcing himself to calm down.

"What the fuck was that?" Turning his head, he stared at his alarm clock and noted the time. "5.30 a.m. School doesn't start for another hour. Better get cleaned up." The white haired boy stripped the drenched shirt and sweatpants off him and got in the shower to get himself cleaned for the day. Naruto stared at his twitching hand under the shower, proof that he was still shaken from the realistic dream. "More like a nightmare then a dream. It felt so real though."

Getting out of the shower, he wiped the excess water of his body before preparing clothes to wear. He put on a pair of brown shorts that reached below the knees and slipped on a black t-shirt. Naruto had to grunt in discomfort at how tight the shirt was, the damn thing was hard to breathe in. Though he couldn't help but smirk at that as he checked himself in the mirror on the wall. It was obvious he had hit a growth spurt recently from how the shirt stretched itself out and how his shorts would hike up when he brought up his knee. His hair had grown longer which caused the normally spiked up locks to fall down a bit. The 14 year old couldn't help but smirk at his image. A month back he was one of the shortest in class but now he was probably about Shino's height.

Turning back to the clock he noted he had about 15 minutes to get to class. The lone resident of the apartment did one last sweep of the house before strapping on his weapon pouch and walking out the door. Jumping up to the roof of the building Naruto took one long gulp of fresh morning air before setting his sights on the village. Store owners were opening up shop and villagers here and there were leaving for work or other matters. There were ninjas jumping from roof to roof going about their duties. There were a few that noticed him and gave a nod in greeting which he returned with a friendly smile.

His smile turned neutral though when he spotted the hokage monument, specifically the heads of the third and the fourth. He starred at the heads for a while before snapping himself out, he didn't want to be late; not for today. Turning to the direction of the academy, he started to jump from roof to roof in reach of his destination. His smile returned with renewed vigor while his eyes narrowed in determination. "Today's the day Naruto. Time to show everyone who's boss. Genin rank here I come."

* * *

><p>"Alright class times up. Pencils down, we'll be taking your test sheets now." Naruto sighed in relief, finally the boring part ends. He couldn't understand why ninja's need to know all this useless facts. Would it really matter in a fight if you knew what the Shodaime Hokage did in order to unite the clans? Why not just throw paper at an enemy; I'm sure he'll stop trying to kill you if he had a paper cut. Naruto snorted at the thought, paper can kill people now that will be the day.<p>

Somewhere far away a blue haired akatsuki female couldn't help the slight twitch in irritation. "Konan is something wrong?" "Nothing Nagato, it just felt like someone just insulted me."

"OK then everyone outside to the training field. We're gonna start the taijutsu test." Out on the field there was a medium size white ring on the ground. Standing in the middle of it was the second class instructor Mizuki. Naruto never really thought much about the silver haired chunin. The guy was nice to everyone but at the same time he couldn't help the bad vibe coming of the man whenever he was close by. He noticed that Mizuki's smile never actually felt genuine, it felt so out of character.

"Alright everyone these are the rules for the taijutsu test. You're going to face Mizuki-sensei in a one-on-one spar to determine how good your combat skills are. The main goal is to last at least three minutes in the ring. Your score will be rated on how well you can land a hit, how well you can dodge and how much damage you can take before the time limit. You will be given extra points on finesse and skill. If you're tossed out of the ring you'll be given a second attempt but if you're out again then you fail this portion of the test completely. If you manage to push Mizuki-sensei out of the ring then you automatically pass with full marks. Any questions before we start? No? Then first one up will be Aburame Shino."

Naruto watched the matches with interest. There was no doubt the Aburame was skilled seeing that the boy was one of the top in class. The tall boy was efficient in combat, always striking and moving at times and places where it dealt the most result. Shino was a silent guy, whenever he tried to speak to him the conversation always ended with the boy giving him short but accurate answers. He didn't have a problem with him so Shino was ok in his book; A little too quiet but ok.

The next to go was Akamichi Chouji. The big boned kid was a friendly and easy going guy. All he ever did is eat and laze around with his best friend Nara Shikamaru. He knew for a fact that although the Nara was lazy the guy was smarter then he acts. The boy could have been top in class but his laziness caused him to be in the lower ranks. Though if one thing's for certain he knew that both boys' will confirmed be genin.

Naruto skipped looking at the other fights. He knew that some of the other kids were good but the only one's interesting were the clan heirs. Though he couldn't say all the clan heirs were good. Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino were smart girls but their combat prowess was only average at best. Hyuga Hinata had potential but the girl was so shy and demure. She was not what he expected the heiress of the proud Hyuga to be like. If only she had a bit more willpower and courage then maybe he would have found her more tolerable to speak to.

A thud on the ground near him interrupted his thoughts. Glancing to his right he saw one of the weaker kids in his class on the ground. Looks like the boy had been knocked out of the ring. The kid got back up and in the ring and though he struggled against the teacher he managed to pass. The next to go in was Inuzuka Kiba. Boy was the kid a handful. He would admit the boy was strong and skilled but damn was he arrogant. It was a testament to the boy's strength when he managed to push Mizuki to the edge of the ring before time ran out.

When the next student came up Naruto couldn't help but narrow his eyes. Namikaze Rina was many things. She was good in taijutsu, excellent in ninjutsu and no skill in genjutsu but had the ability to dispel them at a large radius. Her chakra levels were on the same level as a seasoned jounin with a high stamina rate. The only thing she wasn't good at was her book smarts which were on par with the slightly less than average students. There was no way Konoha's Kuroi Hime wouldn't pass, the council and village wouldn't have it any other way.

The match had ended like expected with the blond girl succeeding in making Mizuki take a step out of the ring. The next few fights weren't in his interest until Uchiha Imca's turn came up. Naruto's eyes softened a bit while his lips were tugged into a thin line displaying a bit of discomfort at the sight of the girl. Imca had changed drastically after the events of the massacre. No more was the sweet innocent little girl but now a cold apathetic teenager. His first friend was strong and the only girl on par with her was Namikaze Rina. The two girls were compared frequently by many people from their grades, combat skills and even looks. The hot topic among the boys in class was which among the two girls was the most attractive though none tried to get close to the raven haired girl lest they want to go through an overprotective Uchiha Sasuke.

Naruto glanced at said raven haired boy with a hint of amusement. There was nothing much to talk about the boy. He had grown strong and was now top in class with the title of rookie of the year under his belt. The two had not communicated much over the years; both were busy getting stronger with Naruto being the more subtle of the two. Their friendship had evolved into a sort of rivalry and though they were now distant Naruto could still feel the tiny almost miniscule bond between the two. Imca's match was over with the girl garnering the same result as Rina. Sasuke went up next and when he walked pass Naruto the two briefly made eye contact before heading off into the ring. A minute into the fight Sasuke had successfully kicked Mizuki out of the ring.

The reaction of the class was instant as the Uchiha's fan girls screamed their lungs out which made the rest of the audience partially deaf for a brief moment. When Sasuke passed Naruto again he sent the white haired boy an arrogant smirk, the hidden message he gave off was clear as day. _Try to beat that._ Naruto gave the boy a smirk of his own. _Challenge accepted._

Mizuki let slip a creepy almost manic smile of delight before covering it up as Naruto entered the ring and approached the two teachers. _'Finally…. Finally I get to have some fun with the demon brat.'_ Naruto gave his teachers a nod of acknowledgement before jumping back a bit to create some distance with the silver haired chunin. Naruto parted his legs and draped his hands at his sides to settle in a loose stance. The way he was standing made the boy look lazy and if it wasn't for the steady, concentrative gaze and the slight twitching of his fingers you wouldn't know if the boy was being serious. Of course Mizuki twitched a bit in irritation thinking the boy was mocking him while a good portion of the class thought he was just fooling around. Other more talented individuals looked on in interest and anticipation.

Iruka raised his hand in preparation while glancing between the two fighters in the ring to check if they were ready. Mizuki and Naruto gave the man a small nod to start the match and Iruka swiftly dropped his raised hand, "Hajime!" (Begin!). Mizuki made the first move which surprised everyone, in all the other matches the teacher never once went off on the offensive at the beginning of the fights. Iruka narrowed his eyes at that; it was a rule among the examiners that the instructor would let the student take the offensive first to let them inspect the students moves before slowly pressing back to push the student to improvise.

Naruto let his eyes widen for half a second before steadying his gaze at the incoming barrage of attacks. His body moved in tight precisions and finesse as he moved left and right dodging the hits. _'Guess I was right in thinking Mizuki had something out for me. The maniac practically jumped at the second he was allowed to hit me.' _Iruka looked on impressed while the students were awed at the way the white haired boy effortlessly danced out of the teachers reach. Mizuki grew angrier and pissed as each of his strikes missed his target. Having had enough Mizuki jumped at Naruto in an attempt to grab him which left the crazed teacher wide open for the white haired boy to exploit. Taking his chance, Naruto slipped into Mizuki's guard before pumping chakra into his fist and releasing it into the man's stomach. The super powered punch caused said teacher to be launched out of the ring until the man managed to correct himself and skidded to halt about 12 to 15 feet away from the initial area.

Iruka broke himself out of his stupor and quickly halted the stopwatch in his hand. The time stated caused the man's eye to almost pop out of his head before turning a bright smile to his favorite student. "Good job Naruto, not only did you manage to toss Mizuki out of the ring you even manage to break the school record. Congratulations, your time is 32.6 seconds beating the last time of 38.4 seconds." Everyone stared in disbelief at the white haired boy's feat while Sasuke narrowed his eyes and shook in jealousy. Mizuki got up unsteadily and glared hatefully at Naruto, _How in hell is he that skilled? There's no way an academy student can punch that hard!_

Naruto walked back to the rest of his classmates while sending Sasuke a victorious smirk. His grin faded a bit when he locked eyes with Imca. The Uchiha girl stared back at him before nodding in acknowledgement. Naruto blinked in surprise before putting on a small smile for her before turning away not noticing the slight but brief reddening of the girl's cheeks. Iruka turned back to the class as he finished marking down the scores on his clipboard, "Alright everyone you all did exceptionally well on the taijutsu test so now we'll start the last test for the day, ninjutsu. Go back and wait inside before we call you down to the examination room to begin."

* * *

><p>Naruto stared at the headband in his hand. The insignia of the leaf stood proud in the middle of the shiny metal slab with its blue cloth draped on his rough hands. Looking up he stared at the sight of parents hugging and congratulating their children while he sat perched up on the branch of a nearby tree. Naruto smiled as he caught sight of Sasuke and Imca walking away from the crowd hand in hand. The two looked as cold as always but he knew they were happy by the small smirk on Sasuke's face and the small smile on Imca's. <em>At least they have each other.<em>

Naruto's smile thinned a bit as he turned to look at the Namikaze heiress. Rina stood smiling as she was given praises for passing the test, she grew even happier as she ran up to a man who had gravity defying grey hair with most of his face covered. Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit as said man briefly turned to look in his direction before turning back to the blond girl infront of him. "You know for someone who just passed the academy graduation test you seem quite sad." Naruto gave a small twitch in surprise as Mizuki appeared right next to him but the white haired boy just continued his musing as if the man was never there. Mizuki shook in anger at the boy's lack of respect but he managed to calm himself down, _control yourself Mizuki. No matter how much you want to strangle the boy you still need him._

"Hey Naruto you were quite impressive in the taijutsu test today. Your strength took me by quite a surprise. For someone as skilled as you I'm gonna tell you a little secret." Mizuki gave off a brief smirk as he noted the boy was listening by the slight inclination of his head. "We usually don't do this but when an academy student shows impressive skill in the exams he is given a small test to give him some how do you say 'extra credit'. If the student passes then he'll be given some money to start off his career, a discount in a local shinobi supply store and a couple of scrolls containing some ninjutsu. So what do you say? Interested?" If he didn't have the boy's attention then he definitely had it now. Naruto starred at Mizuki's face and the man sweated a bit under the teen's intense glare before the boy nodded his head in acceptance of the man's proposition.

"G-Good, then its settled. All you have to do is sneak into the administration building and into the Hokage's personal archives. Then you'll have to steal a large scroll with the word forbidden on it. When you have the scroll sneak out and meet me at the small wooden shack about east of training ground 48. You'll fail the test if you get caught so good luck." With that Mizuki jumped off to god knows where with a creepy smile on his face. Naruto stared at the direction mizuki left and couldn't help but shake his head in exasperation at the man's attempt to trick him. "That man has got to be the biggest idiot in the world if he thinks anything he said could have fooled anyone…. Well I might as well indulge him. Who knows, I might get something good out of all this."

* * *

><p>"Let's see what's inside this thing." Getting the scroll had been easy for him, heck it was <em>too<em> easy. "You would think they'd try to put more security on a scroll containing some of the most dangerous techniques known in the village." Now Naruto was in the wooden shack waiting for his traitor of a teacher to come and find him. _Mizuki's gonna have a big surprise waiting for him when he gets here._ There was the question of the Hokage though, "Meh, if Jiji asks I'll just say I was following orders."

Opening the scroll of seals Naruto couldn't help the excitement coursing through his veins. Oh he knew what this scroll was, Konoha's forbidden scroll of sealing was common knowledge among any shinobi and its contents were shrouded in total mystery. All one would know from rumors was that it contained A to S rank jutsu of all classes and even complex fuinjutsu that could even bend the fabric of time and space; all were recorded by the hokage's themselves. Naruto knew he wouldn't have time for all of it but maybe he could learn one technique. The first technique had him already drooling; **Kagebunshin** (shadow clone) a technique that could create corporal copies of the user. The clones could use jutsu themselves and when dispelling would transfer all information it had experience back to the user.

Naruto grimaced when he read the amount of chakra needed to produce one clone was enough to put a chunin to about half his total chakra capacity. The technique itself certainly deserved the title of kinjutsu though that wasn't enough to stop Naruto from memorizing how to do it. It might serve him better on a later date when he had enough chakra to not kill himself when using it. Maybe in an alternate reality he would have just used the technique without even bothering with the description or warnings.

The next few jutsu were similar to the first, **Kageshuriken** and its variation with kunai and **Bunshin Daibakuha**, an exploding shadow clone. The more techniques he looked at the more abstract and confusing they get, "Damn it I had a feeling this would happen. There's no way a genin can learn any of these things unless they had like a jounin's amount of chakra." He sighed at the whole situation, looks like this whole thing was a waste. Naruto was about to roll up the scroll when he noticed a weird spiral design under the next technique listed. "**Shiki Fuin**….." before he could read more the sudden rustling of leaves alerted him of a presence nearby. Quickly, he rolled up the scroll and prepared a kunai in his right hand.

"I found you!" Iruka couldn't believe it when he heard the news of Naruto stealing the forbidden scroll of sealing. He knew something was wrong for one of his most level headed students to even attempt to steal from the village. Was he being tricked? Was Naruto being forced into doing it? Iruka had to be the first one to get to Naruto, he didn't want to know what would happen if he wasn't. That's why Iruka couldn't believe his luck when he was the first to find the boy. "What do you think you're doing idiot!"

Naruto just stared at his teacher while contemplating telling the truth or play the idiot. "Well… isn't this part of the test? I thought Mizuki-sensei was testing me but I should have known you would be in it too Iruka-sensei. So what do you think? I passed right?" Iruka looked at his student in confusion, "Mizuki? Test? What are you-" With trained instincts and reflexes Iruka pushed Naruto out of the way but was pinned to the side of the shack by several kunai.

"Looks like you got here first Iruka." Naruto and Iruka turned to a nearby tree and standing on it was the culprit of all this mess. Iruka glared at the traitor, "Mizuki!" The silver haired chunin simply smiled a manic smile at his former friend before turning to Naruto, "Good work Naruto. You passed with flying colors, now hand over the scroll." Iruka turned to the white haired boy, "Don't do it Naruto! He's lying to you, run away now!" Naruto stood in the middle of the two teachers, his mind racing with strategies on how to get him and Iruka out of the area. Mizuki just smirked before turning back to Naruto, "Say Naruto do you know why everybody hates you?" Naruto stopped himself from moving while Iruka stared at Mizuki in shock, "No Mizuki don't!"

"Don't you want to know Naruto? After all only you don't know the reason while everybody else knows."

"Naruto don't listen to him! Please Mizuki it's forbidden!"

Naruto had his head lowered and his hair covering his eyes which shadowed his face from the two adults. Mizuki gave a manic grin and laugh at the sight of the unmoving boy

"You are the Nine Tailed Fox that almost destroyed the village 13 years ago! You killed Iruka's parents and the Yondaime Hokage! YOU ARE THE KYUUBI! NOW DIE DEMON!" Mizuki took out one of his oversized shurikens on his back and threw it at the white haired boy. Naruto gritted his teeth and was about to intercept the shuriken when someone pushed him down. Looking up, Naruto stared in disbelief at the sight of Iruka crouching over him with Mizuki's shuriken stuck on his back. Naruto felt a drop of water hit his cheek which turned out to be Iruka's tears, "It was painful wasn't it Naruto? To be alone; I know how it feels. I'm sorry I couldn't help you more."

Mizuki stared in disgust as Iruka stood protectively over the kyuubi brat, "Iruka! I thought you of all people would want to see your parents' killer dead but to see you saving the kid made me want to puke. I changed my mind, I'M GONNA KILL YOU FIRST!" With that the crazed man launched his second shuriken at his injured ex-colleague. Naruto quickly moved Iruka to the side, stood up and caught the weapon by its middle. Naruto gave Mizuki his hardest glare while sending the man a large wave of killing intent, "Hurt Iruka-sensei again and I'll kill you." Mizuki froze at the potent killing intent, _how does a kid have this much killing intent!_ "H-Heheh You think you can kill me! You're just a kid! I'll show you the true power of a chunin!" Naruto merely smirked at him, "I was hoping you'd say that."

Naruto pulled back his arm and used his chakra to spin the shuriken to razor speeds before throwing it at the deranged man. The speed of the shuriken caught Mizuki by surprise and he barely had enough time to dodge it. Mizuki turned back to Naruto and launched himself of the tree to attack the boy. Naruto just stared coolly as he gave a small jerk of his arm. The shuriken that was thrown earlier came back and successfully clipped Mizuki's side in mid air which caused said man to fall to the ground. Mizuki glared at Naruto with as much hate as possible while clutching his bleeding side, "H-How did you!"

Naruto just gave the man a smirk as he launched the shuriken again but this time Mizuki managed to use **Kawamiri** (replacement) with a log to escape. Mizuki appeared behind Naruto and was about to stab him with a kunai but Naruto spun around to block with a kunai of his own. Mizuki used a snap kick which connected to Naruto's side but instead of hitting flesh he hit a hard rock. Mizuki winced in pain and hurriedly dodged to the right but the large shuriken from before had managed to slice him on the left shoulder. Mizuki looked left and right as he stood in the middle of a clearing several meters from the general area which they started from.

"Come on out here you demon fox! I'm gonna skin you alive!" The deranged and now slightly frightened man panicked as he looked around him to spot his target. "You know Mizuki for a chunin you're surprisingly weak. But then again all those years of non active duty teaching us academy students could have made anyone soft. Or maybe you're just really that pathetic." Naruto's voice came out in all directions of the nearby trees. Mizuki's face lit up in red hot anger as he screamed and shouted around him, "GRAAAAHH GET OUT OF HERE YOU DEMON! I'LL SHOW YOU WHO'S WEAK!" Naruto merely chuckled at him, "I don't need to; I already won." Then Mizuki finally noticed the several explosive tags attached to all the trees around him.

"Boom."

Iruka stared in shock and wonder as several meters away a giant explosion shook the ground and incinerated the resounding area. Iruka was startled in surprise when Naruto dropped down infront of him, "Hey Iruka-sensei, you ok?" The man in question smiled at his surrogate little brother, "Yeah Naruto I'm fine, how were you able to move the shuriken like that?" Naruto grinned at him before showing him a thin black metallic wire coiled around his finger. "Ninja wire, I attached it to the shuriken to make it come back to me. You should already know this since you're the one who taught me." Iruka smiled at the boy's quick thinking but the moment was broken when several Anbu appeared around them. Naruto couldn't help but roll his eyes in exasperation, "Now you guys show up. I was beginning to think all of you were on the other side of the village." The Anbu simply stared back at Naruto but one of them, a woman with long purple hair with a cat mask giggled softly at the boy's sarcasm.

"Konoha no Naruto (1), by orders of the Sandaime Hokage you are to be brought back with the forbidden scroll of sealing to be question on this incident. Failure to cooperate will be responded with force." Naruto twitched in irritation at the man's statement, "I'm not going anywhere until Iruka-sensei is sent to the hospital or at least given field treatment." Iruka looked at Naruto in exasperation, "Naruto just follow the Anbu, its Hokage-sama's orders. I'll be fine so you don't have to worry about me." Naruto was about to argue with the man but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Turning to the owner of the limb; it was the cat Anbu again, "Its fine Naruto-kun, we'll bring Umino-san to the hospital. In the mean time please comply with our orders." Naruto grumbled under his breath but eventually sighed in acceptance, "Fine I'll follow you. Can't keep the old man waiting right?" Everyone sweat dropped at the boy's blatant disrespect of the old leader. With a small giggle the cat Anbu made a single one handed hand seal and **Shunshined **(Body Flickered) the both of them away.

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><p>"And that's how it went." Sarutobi sighed in exhaustion as Naruto recounted what happened with the confrontation between Mizuki and him. "Naruto, I know you're confident but if you knew it was a trap why didn't you inform me earlier?" Naruto stared at the old leader before turning his head to the large window behind to stare at the sight of the hokage monument, specifically the Yondaime's head. "I… needed to confirm something." The Sandaime shook his head at that. Ever since the Uchiha massacre the young bright ball of joy had changed into a more level headed and sarcastic teenager. The change wasn't instantaneous but it was there. Now the boy was always reluctant to open up to him and he himself wasn't helping much either. I mean sure they were close but not as close as before when the boy would have trusted him in about anything.<p>

"Naruto… about the Kyuubi…"

"Save it Jiji I already know." Sarutobi looked at him in surprise which Naruto merely rolled his eyes at. "I mean you didn't actually keep it that hard of a secret. The villagers weren't helping much either with all of them ignoring or glaring. And when I learned about the Bijuu (tailed beasts) in the library all that was left was to connect the dots. It wasn't that I knew it but I had a hunch. Mizuki just confirmed it for me." Sarutobi inclined back in his seat and gave of another sigh, "How long?"

"About three years ago I think." Three years ago, well if his memory served him right then that was about the time Naruto became really angry at him or more like everyone including him. He didn't know what caused the 11 year old to suddenly start playing pranks on the village again but thank goodness it stopped in about a week. To this day that week was called hell week by most of the villagers. The boy would paint houses bright colors, plant stink bombs in several shops and even released the Inuzuka hounds out of their clan compound. The ninjas all had a field day cleaning up after the boys mess. The funny thing was they couldn't blame the boy for doing it since he was never even there in the first place.

"Ne Jiji… Can you tell me who my parents are?" Sarutobi stared at the boy in confusion, "I thought I told you before Naruto, I don't know-"

"Stop lying Jiji." The old hokage stopped in mid sentence at the accusation. Naruto's face was one of calm neutrality but his eyes looked back at him with such an intense gaze; a storm of emotions in those deep blue orbs. Under a gaze of one such as those the old man couldn't help but speak the truth, "I… I'm sorry for lying to you Naruto, but trust me in saying that you aren't ready to know who they are." Naruto and Sarutobi continued to stare at one another for about a minute until Naruto turned back to gazing at the monument. The memory of the night five years ago played in his mind.

_Itachi stared down at the young white haired boy, "In the future Naruto-kun you'll start asking questions; questions no one is willing to answer. It will be up to you how you obtain these answers you seek. But the answers you find might not even be the right answers at all."_

"Jiji… If I grow stronger… will you tell me about them?" Sarutobi stared at the boy before smiling, "Alright Naruto. When you grow strong enough I'll tell you who your parents are." Naruto gave the old leader a look of pure determination before standing up and bowing at him. "Just you wait Jiji, I'll be stronger in no time. Thanks for being truthful to me." With that the young man left the room. Sarutobi turned his chair so he could look out the large window behind him; the sight of Konoha whether night or day always amazed him. He stared at the faces on the hokage monument, specifically the head of the Yondaime. "He's grown quite a bit hasn't he? Kakashi, I'll leave it up to you to take care of him." The grey haired sharingan wielder slipped out of the darkness behind the old leader. His trade mark book was held in his hand as he nodded at the old man's words.

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

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><p><strong>Author<strong>** Notes:** So how was that? Surprised I didn't have Naruto learn the kagebunshin? Well unlike canon Naruto he isn't that big of a chakra house yet so even if he did try he'll only be able to make about ten clones at max and even that is pushing it. Naruto's power level is more or less on par with Sasuke right now so the two will be evenly matched in most fights. If you noticed Naruto is a bit more knowledgeable but can still be a bit stubborn like how he refused to leave Iruka behind even though he's surrounded by friendlies. This whole chap was more Naruto centric and I'm hoping to maybe change the POV in coming chapters like seeing Rina's side of the story but I'm gonna need everyone's opinion. I've already introduced Kakashi as most likely candidate for Naruto's team leader but that still remains to be seen. In the next chap it will be team placings and the last genin test before heading on to Wave, oh I just can't wait for all the surprises I have in store for you all. This is kitsunelovers94 signing off :3

(1) Konoha no Naruto (Naruto of Konoha): In case your all wondering this is how Naruto is gonna be recognized as when he is fully introduced to other characters. I can't have him go in fights without having a name to broadcast himself. "My name is Konoha no Naruto! Remember that!"


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